Botanic Gardens MRT Station
Botanic Gardens MRT Station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Circle Line and the Downtown Line in Singapore. This station is located near the Singapore Botanic Gardens at the intersection of Bukit Timah Road and Cluny Park Road, hence its name. It is also near the National University of Singapore Bukit Timah campus and is behind Serene Centre. As the Bukit Brown station will only be operational after the Bukit Brown area has been developed enough, the section of track between Botanic Gardens and Caldecott is the longest on the Circle Line. As the distance between the Circle Line and Downtown Line platforms is relatively long, it has travelators, the fourth station after Dhoby Ghaut, Serangoon and Bugis to have travelators within the paid area. The train however goes at 110km/h at that time. Botanic Gardens is here for some events, for example when Lim Shi Li became the first Circle Line person in Botanic Gardens, the MOT Family Charity Day which goes from Botanic Gardens to Labrador Park and when you exit and go to Botanic Gardens. It will also interchange with the two competitors, Downtown Bay and YourStudent. Jeremy Mok’s family will also be coming in to Botanic Gardens area. Botanic Gardens is also an interchange with the Downtown Line. When the Thomson Line opens, Botanic Gardens will also be connected through the two MRT stations, one at Napier Road and one at the Bukit Timah Road (part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site). The Downtown Line station was designed by AEP Consultants and Geoconsult Asia and was constructed by Sembawang Engineers & Constructors. Botanic Gardens station is the only MRT station in Singapore to have an official Malay name. This station attracts number of visitors to Singapore Botanic Gardens. Botanic Gardens MRT Station is also the one who do not have a TransitLink Ticket Office but had their ticket office pre-installed. History Prior to the opening of the station, it was named Adam. Public consultation of the station began in January 2006 and only two names were selected - Botanic Gardens and Cluny Road. On 12 September 2006, Botanic Gardens was selected. Construction of the Circle Line station began in 10 March 2005. It had acquired some of the Botanic Gardens, but restored on 10 March 2010. Construction of the Downtown Line station began in 12 February 2010. On 11 March 2012, a worker was killed at a site near the Botanic Gardens, beside the contractor's site office after a concrete slab fell on him. 35-year-old Masud al-Mamun was operating an excavator deep in the ground when the slab fell on him. Rescuers had to use a breaking tool kit to break a portion of the concrete slab. It took nearly five hours to reach the man lying motionless on the ground. This is the first casualty related case in the construction of the Downtown Line. On the morning of May 3, 2017, Downtown Line (DTL) train services towards Chinatown were disrupted for 7 hours due to a platform screen door (PSD) malfunction at Botanic Gardens MRT. This, as stated by SBS Transit, the line's operator, was due to a signalling-related fault. This resulted in the doors being unable to open automatically, which meant that staff had to manually operate them whenever a train arrived at the station, which took some time and thus caused delays in train services. SBS Transit sent out an alert on Twitter at 7.31am about the fault, advising commuters to expect additional travelling time of up to 10 minutes. However, many commuters complained that the travel time was more than 10 minutes. The decision was eventually made at 9.37am to close the platform for trains heading towards Chinatown to enable engineers to resolve the fault. As a result, station staff were stationed at Botanic Gardens, Stevens and Tan Kah Kee stations to advise passengers on how to get to their destinations. The fault was eventually rectified at 12.54pm and the platform was reopened for passenger service. However, two doors (#5 and #6) were closed for more in-depth repairs that night. Art in Transit The artwork featured in this station under the Art in Transit programme is Aquatic Fauna No. 1 by Kai Lam and Chua Chye Teck. The mural, displayed above the platform doors, contains symbolic imageries of water and aquatic animals using the Chinese paper cutting technique. The "fauna" mural not only highlights the station's proximity to the Botanic Gardens, but also complements the 2-storey high water-cascading wall in the station, the first to have such a feature within the station. Platforms Botanic Gardens station has four platforms utilized by both rail lines for trains travelling in either direction, arranged in an island platform layout for each rail line. The newer Downtown Line cuts underneath the Circle Line, and the platforms serving both lines are connected with a transfer linkway at concourse level, within paid areas of the station. Concourse Both CCL and DTL station concourses are located at Basement 1. The concourse features faregates for automatic fare collection and provides access between paid and unpaid areas of the station, with at least one bidirectional wide-swinging gate for the benefit of passengers-in-wheelchairs and those carrying bulky items or travelling with prams. Exits Botanic Gardens has two exits in the street level (Exit A and B). Exit A from the CCL station and Exit B from the DTL station. Both exits are equipped with stairs and escalators, and lifts provide barrier-free accessibility for the disabled. Exit B is equipped with an overhead bridge meant for their graduation ceremonies. Station layout Passenger Usage Patterns Transport connections Rail References External links * Category:Tanglin Category:Railway stations opened in 2011 Category:Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) stations